We’ve legislated limits on many personal freedoms, with good reason

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Jeff Jacoby’s Dec. 19 op-ed, “Good laws will never abolish evil,” boggles the mind. Our country was founded on freedom, but over the years we have legislated many limits on personal freedoms. You can’t recklessly yell “Fire!” in a movie theater. Motorists have speed limits. There is a legal drinking age, and there are laws against trespassing on another’s property. All these limits and other were instituted to prevent harm and ensure peace and security to the community at large.

Banning assault weapons would be consistent with existing limits on Americans’ freedoms. You can’t “abolish all human evil,” as Jacoby says. But you can deter it. The rest of us also have rights: to freedom from fear.

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